Nature consumes deserted properties

Saturday

Jul 26, 2014 at 12:01 AMJul 26, 2014 at 4:35 PM

Forgotten houses, barns dot landscape

Janet S. Carter / Chief Photographer

Farmhouses and barns are not uncommon around Lenoir and Greene counties. Before highways and power lines infiltrated nature’s landscape, there were farms, barns and houses. When tobacco was the crop to grow, these structures sheltered the families that grew it and the cured leaves that kept food on the table. As agriculture shifted and technology advanced, these buildings lost their tenants.

Slowly these hand-built quarters are quietly surrendering to age, weatherization and new construction. Walter Adams, agriculture and natural resources technician with the Lenoir County Cooperative Extension, says there are no laws or regulations to protect these buildings. The structure’s fate is left up to the landowner.

“I’ve seen a few that date back to mid and late 1800’s but all the storms we’ve had have almost wiped all of them out,” said Adams.

For the century old or more buildings that remain, they’re still recognizable to some degree. Why? Materials and labor.

“Construction materials tended to be higher quality historically — masonry was used more prevalently and wood was either heavy timber sized, or in the case of early frame construction, came from trees that were older, taller, and more stable A modern day 2-by-4 is far inferior to a 2-by-4 from 100 years ago, or even 20 years ago,” said Russ Woods, architect for Dunn & Dalton Architects.

He added, “As for the labor, things were generally built with more care historically because one was building for oneself, or for family or friends, and not as much was built at that time — “production building” did not enter the construction world until much more recently,” said Woods.

Without knowing who designed the withering properties that are left, the effort that went into the framework are a mystery. What we can see is, some of them are still here. Before modern conveyances it’s vertiably easy to imagine what these places looked like. Acres of crops, a barn here, a house there and countless trees and so on. However you picture it, the description may differ but the elements will stay the same.